


A Glimpse of Home

by Raisans_Grapeon



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Alien Planet, Alien Shane, Aliens, Lies, Light Angst, Paranormal Investigators, secrecy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-26
Updated: 2019-10-14
Packaged: 2020-03-17 22:31:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18973828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raisans_Grapeon/pseuds/Raisans_Grapeon
Summary: “It’d be narcissistic to think that the Earth was the only planet with life,” Shane stated rather bluntly, tired eyes trained on the veil of star-studded space. Grass brushed past his ankles as he slowly padded closer to Ryan.Ryan blinked a few times, mouth opening and closing a bit before a response formulated. “But you don’t think it’s intelligent,” Ryan retorted with the same amount of frankness. With that last statement, his eyes were back to the sky as he scanned alongside Shane, his camera focused everywhere he wasn’t looking.A shrug was all that came back, unseen and plain.





	1. Chapter 1: He, With the Suffocating Darkness

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, everyone! Welcome to another one of my fics. It has been a long while since I've written let alone posted on here. 
> 
> But I wrote this small little thing just to hopefully get back into the groove of it. A small Alien Shane fic. I don't know if I want to continue with this or not, so I'm keeping this a one-shot at the moment unless you guys want more chapters to follow this up.
> 
> Lastly, I am not a professional writer, nor am I an English Major in college. There are bound to be a lot of mistakes here so any sort of critique would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> With that said, enjoy.

The night was still young. The true, deep blacks were still tinted with the last remnants of blue from the sunset. Stars glittered and twinkled, finding little hindrance from man-made lights or clouds. A large meadow stretched out into the horizon, lined by forestation that rustled with every breeze that coursed through. Grass bent, rippling gently and serenely. The air had a slight bite of cold to it due to the absence of the sun overhead, sending a shock of a chill down the spine of a certain paranormal investigator. Ryan stood on the edge of the field before him, his unstyled, curling hair tickling his forehead. His taller co-host, Shane, was just behind him, locking the van up after they were fully equipped with cameras, flashlights, and their wits.

Drawing in a deep breath, Ryan turned to face his partner with a steely determination. “You ready, Shane?” He allowed the camera that he gripped tightly in his hand to focus on Shane, the night vision catching his usual fragment of a smile that he upheld most times. 

“Sure am.” Without a second to contemplate, Shane crossed the threshold from the dirt car path into the field, taking long strides with his lanky legs. “Let’s get this started! I’m excited.” From that point on, his eyes kept to the sky, head tilting back slightly to get a better view of the clear, open dome of night above him. The stars shuddered all the same.

Ryan followed in suit, urgency causing him to surge forward and ahead of his friend. His eyes never stop flicking over the expanse all around him, his hand held camera swiveling slowly about as well. His chest camera focused on the distant treelines growing closer with each step. “Just remember to keep looking around. We don’t want to miss anything.”

Shane simply bobbed his head, eyes lazily hopping from light to light in the sky. His own camera held visual on Ryan instead. “Yeah, wouldn’t want to miss all those aliens, bro.” A hint of sarcasm was laced in his voice, but light enough. His steps grew smaller, the toe of his shoe scraping along the dirt as he began to twist around to focus on another slice of sky.

Ryan tisked lightly, his smile hidden from plain sight. “This is a popular spot for sightings. I feel as though our luck might be with us tonight.”

“Oh yes,” Shane responded, now walking backwards through the meadow towards his co-host. “Lady Luck hitched a ride with us tonight. How many sightings have there been here, exactly?” 

Ryan sputtered, his pace hitching. “Shut up, Shane.” A small chuckle faintly carried into the breathy winds. “Recorded instances, there have been about five.”

“Woah, buster! Five? That’s a lot!” Shane slowed to a standstill, facing away from Ryan.

Huffing slightly, Ryan stopped in the middle of the meadow. A gust pushed through the stillness, causing him to let out an indigent burr. “Try to take this seriously, Shane,” he grumbled before tearing his eyes away from the sky to look at his taller compatriot. Moreso, he caught the faint outline of his shoulders and hair in the low-light. “This is a serious investigation.”

Shane didn’t look down, still connecting the dots in the sky. “You say that about every investigation, and, like always, I am taking it seriously.”

“I say that because they are. Come on, even you believe in aliens.” Ryan paused. “In a way. I figured you would tone down the asshattery for something you sorta believe in.” He shifted slightly in the grass before letting his gaze wander around the stretching meadow and forest beyond.

“It’d be narcissistic to think that the Earth was the only planet with life,” Shane stated rather bluntly, tired eyes trained on the veil of star-studded space. Grass brushed past his ankles as he slowly padded closer to Ryan.

Ryan blinked a few times, mouth opening and closing a bit before a response formulated. “But you don’t think it’s intelligent,” Ryan retorted with the same amount of frankness. With that last statement, his eyes were back to the sky as he scanned alongside Shane, his camera focused everywhere he wasn’t looking. 

A shrug was all that came back, unseen and plain. Shane’s sights finally landed on a small star, barely shining through. It struggled and gasped through the suffocating darkness. If Shane had to guess, even the smallest bit of light pollution could snuff it out like a candle. His droopy eyes raised ever so slightly.

“Okay, Shane. It’s time to turn on our lights. Hopefully, we can flag down something that might be overhead,” Ryan called from behind, but Shane made no move to grab his light or acknowledge his existence. Narrowing his eyes, Ryan reached an arm up to rest on his friend’s shoulder. “Shane? Come on! Lights!” He pressed his weight down onto Shane, causing the thinner man to stumble and cave a bit. Shane’s eyes snapped over to look at Ryan, their gazes meeting. If Ryan didn’t know Shane, he’d dare to say that he looked lost. “Dude, you alright? No need to take staring off into space so literally.” He tried to laugh at his own terrible joke, but there was an uncertainty to how it would land.

It only took a few blinks till a smile became visible on his face, eyes relaxing and crinkling. A soft laugh bumbled it’s way out of Shane’s lips as he straightened himself out. Ryan could feel his own worries ease away. “Sorry, Bergara. It's just a nice night. We never see this many stars in L.A. or Schaumburg.” Shane instinctually rubbed his forearm. “But yeah. Lights.” He nodded as he used his free hand to pull out his own mag light out. “Whenever you’re ready.” 

Ryan smiled back over at Shane, flicking the light in his hand on. The beam shone out, cutting through the nighttime shadows and filtering through blades of grass. “Alright. We can try this for ten minutes or so. Then we can go back to just looking around.” He let the light shine on Shane’s face, the dramatic shadows deepening his eye bags and making his gentle smile come off as both patient and creepy. 

"Righto!" With a soft click, Shane’s own mag light sputtered to life, further brightening the surrounding area. A quick nod to each other, and then they pointed the bulbs upwards, letting the light disperse gradually into the quiet skies. Ryan meandered off while Shane took to the ground, folding his long legs up to his chest while keeping the light trained forward. The grass clawed gently at his jeans and flannel, a few blades finding their way to itch at Shane's back. Looking out to the star he had spotted before, the sudden brightness had predictably cloaked it. It still existed though, that much Shane knew. It was still floating aimlessly, burning bright in the vacuum of space. If one had to guess, one would say there were planets orbiting it. A larger stretch would be saying life existed on one of those planets. Normally, Shane would say it was preposterous. Hypothetically though, it wasn’t. Only hypothetically.

Absentmindedly, the lanky man began to make the light flicker. On and off it went in a monotonous pattern. Ten minutes, Shane kept playing the pattern on repeat like a broken record. But his thumb moved deliberately, and his eyes scanned keenly. Ten minutes and the tired man let the night rest, ceasing his assault. Ryan probably said something about continuing the rest of the investigation, but Shane paid him little mind. He kept his eyes fixated out beyond the reaches of the Earth, pupils rapidly adjusting to the shift in brightness. 

Once again the dim star came into view, twinkling joyfully. Ryan could be heard walking further into the meadow, the sound of shifting grass growing fainter. Alone, Shane rested his hand-held camera a ways away from him and turned off his chest cam. He didn’t have an excuse to use when Ryan asked him why his chest camera turned off in the middle of the investigation, but Shane figured that the improv classes he took so long ago would come into handy. At the moment, nothing was more important than the negligible dot before him. 

One could only guess one of the orbiting planets of that particular star had life on it. Shane always excluded himself from those people. He knew there was life on a planet orbiting that particular star. The fifth planet from that star. In fact, he knew that the planet was often cold. Longer legs were a must due to the height of that planet’s snow. Shane knew some of the creatures on the fifth planet from the star that shone lamely in the sky had grown intelligent. Intelligent enough to traverse large distances in space. He remembered the first exploration. He at least remembered the whole route that they were supposed to take. Earth was one of many stops on the journey, and it would’ve been a round trip back home.

Shane remembered what home looked like. In his mind, home was large and complex. Home was his world. A large, expansive planet of cold, bitter winds and tough food. In front of him, home was a meager speck of light, seeming to dissolve into the midnight black.

The probability of aliens visiting Earth was highly unlikely. The probability of an Alien being forgotten on Earth was slim to none. The probability of the aliens coming back for it was nonexistent.

So, all Shane could do was sit on the ground, feet firmly planted, and look up at a mere glimpse of home.


	2. Chapter 2: Detrimental to the Point of Fibs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryan was going to find out soon, but Shane can't pull off a convincing performance for the secrecy of him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I decided to continue this! Instead of making this chapter its own book and have all the updates there, I decided to just tack it on to here and make everything stay in one place.
> 
> So yeah, uh any criticism is greatly appreciated and all that stuff
> 
> Enjoy!

Morning breaks over the concrete tops of apartments and businesses, golden light scattering across the urban jungle while keeping most streets in a comfortable shadow. Persistent honks and sirens carry over from the night time hustle and bustle to continue in the dawn. Clouds drift at a snail’s pace above, sporting burning reds as the sun struggles to stretch its rays over the horizon. Pigeons coo and tag along with the first pedestrians in hopes of earning an easy and sweet breakfast. With reluctance, Ryan rose as well, his brain struggling to cling onto the last scraps of a meager sleep. The man had spent the better part of the night reviewing footage from his latest investigation with his partner, Shane. The couple of hours he managed to force himself into did not relieve him of the bruises under his eyes, nor did it lessen the bedhead he woke with. 

Despite the lack of rest, Ryan pulled his legs out of the tangle of sheets on his bed and around to the floor. The cruel, chilly morning assaulted his bare skin, pulling goosebumps out along the groggy man’s arms and sending a chill straight up his spine. With a burr, Ryan stood, rocking onto his feet before meandering over to his closet to pick out clothing while his brain picked out what to do that day. One item that stood relatively high on his to-do list for that day was exchanging words with Shane.

During their last investigation for Unsolved Supernatural, the duo had gone out to look for aliens in a field that had a propensity for seeing UFOs over the area. It was a typical video. Plenty of banter and teasing on both ends. It was good content, despite the unsettling vibes Ryan always got from Shane’s lackadaisical attitude to the supernatural. That wasn’t the problem though. About halfway through the investigation, Shane put his handheld on the ground, darkening the frame with grass and shadow, while he straight up turned his chest camera off. It stayed like that for a solid hour before he turned them back on and rushed off to tag along with Ryan again. 

To say the least, Ryan was livid. He could handle Shane’s playful jeering and persistent skepticism, but the stunt he pulled was insulting. There was so little care put into what Ryan believed in, and he was going to discuss it with the tall bastard. His morning seemed to blur by as he rushed to resolve this problem as soon as possible, his frustration getting no satisfaction if he couldn’t chastise someone.

Upon arriving after sending unintentional death glares to his uber driver, Ryan tried to stalk over to his desk without stomping his feet too much. Falling into the grooved pads on his swivel chair sent the seat reeling for a second before Ryan stopped it with his feet and slid into place effortlessly. The nearby window allowed a haze of a golden yellow to warm only one side of his face, the rest cooled by the BuzzFeed building’s air conditioning. Futilely, the man tried to get some work done before Shane got in, only managing to pull open a word document and reread the first paragraph of the next episode.

“Hey, buddy!” The sudden, cheery call came with a light slap on Ryan’s back. The shorter man jolted in his seat, chest heaving forward and almost slamming his head into his keyboard. A quick glance over his shoulder and Ryan could see Shane looming overhead with a small, gentle grin, his eyes crinkling enough that Ryan couldn’t see his eyes, though the investigator could only assume that the twiggish man was looking down at him.

Ryan blinked a few times as Shane began to settle himself in his desk before the irritation bubbled up again. “So, Shane. I was going to look over the footage last night,” he started with a glower, eyebrows firmly knit together.

Shane was quick to interject. “You shouldn’t stay up late just to go over the footage, you know?” The comment was kind and caring, but only further riled up Shane’s friend.

“That’s not- Whatever, I was going over the footage, and I found that your chest camera was turned off for a whole hour! An hour!” Ryan spat out the conviction with added pointing on his end to accentuate his grievances. “Not only that, your handheld was facing the ground for that same hour! There was an entire hour section where you aren’t recording anything! What the fuck!?” At that point, Ryan was encroaching on Shane’s space and the taller man was leaning away, tired eyes widening ever so slightly. It was obvious that his point had found purchase in Shane’s big head of his, but it wasn’t enough satisfaction for the shorter man. “You said you take these investigations seriously, but you pull this shit no less than 20 minutes later! Just because you don’t believe in this stuff doesn’t mean you get to actively sabotage my chances in getting evidence!” His voice was carrying across the office now, several heads turning to watch the passionate display Ryan was running and the continued shrinking of Shane, eyes ever growing in size. It didn’t bother the smaller man though. In his mind, the lanky bastard deserved this kind of embarrassment. Ryan huffed and sunk sullenly back into his swivel chair, glaring at his partner. “So? What half-assed reason do you have as to why you stopped recording?”

Shane took a few moments to get his brain to work on a response while resituating himself in his seat. “Uh…” his voice came out in a weak breath just as he shook off the rest of the startlement. Ryan’s frown deepened, his impatience growing exponentially. “You see…,” The longer it took for Shane to get the cogs whirring in his brain, the more distrustful Ryan was becoming about the answer he was going to receive. The truth doesn’t take this long to come to light. His shoulders stiffened at the fact that Shane was working so hard to pull something out of his ass to excuse this whole situation. Shane’s tells of anxiousness and panic were clearly visible to the man’s closest friend. He was still as a statue, rigid and unmoveable. His eyes shuddered back and forth as if he was reading something in his lap. Ryan was about to dismiss everything and just give his friend the cold shoulder the rest of the week until Shane finally began to speak in full sentences. “I… thought the probability of actually seeing anything that could even be counted as a UFO was so unlikely that… it-... i-... I just wanted to enjoy the night without anything to worry about. There aren’t a whole lot of stars out in LA.” He said it all with consistent eye contact with Ryan, maybe in hopes of seeming more sincere, but Ryan knew better. He could see something in his taller compatriate’s eyes churning. Ryan knew he was lying, but it sounded like the truth.

Before confusion could wrack his brain and tell Shane what he knew, Ryan turned wordlessly back to his screen, opting to stare holes into his next script with a fierce intensity. It was only at that point when became fully aware of all the eyes trained on the situation, all directed elsewhere. The rest of the office must’ve taken what Shane said to the bank because chatter resumed with a sense of reluctance. It left the shorter man to contemplate other theories as to why Shane would’ve wanted to turn his cameras off. The obvious reasoning had been thrown out the window quickly, leaving Ryan scrambling for anything that could be viable.

Unless he could get a straight answer from the source. Somewhere a bit more private.

Throughout the rest of the day, Ryan devised a plan to get him and Shane alone in one of their apartments where Ryan could conduct further questioning without any more prying glances. It was a fairly simple plan, allowing the man’s mind to rest after the base work was done so he could actually do what he was supposed to do in the office that day, which consisted a lot of script revisions, meetings with editors, and some production meetings about other videos for regular BuzzFeed. 

The day began to draw to a close as workers in the office began to file out for the evening, the sun still glaring brightly down on the city before it. Shane was already shutting down his devices to leave for the day, saving the last of his files and word documents that he had been working on the whole day without saving once because he believed in “living on the edge.” Ryan saw the moment he needed to intervene and took it.

“Shane.” His call was flatter than Ryan had anticipated, but it got his friend’s attention nonetheless, getting the sasquatch of a man to stop for a moment and listen. With his attention, Ryan wasted no more time and decided to keep it painfully brief. “I’d like to talk to you. Somewhere with more privacy.” He decided to let Shane call the shot on where they could talk.

Confused, but willing, Shane gave the slightest hint of a shrug before replying with   
“how about my place then?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! There will be more chapters to this so be sure to subscribe so you can know when it comes out!


	3. Chapter 3: Light Polluted Skies During the End of the World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Ryan asks to meet up with Shane after work, it could only mean bad news for Shane.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello and welcome to another chapter. Thank you for coming in again, I appreciate it. 
> 
> Sorry for the slow down of writing, motivation has been awful low but a few recent comments got me back into the swing. 
> 
> As I always say, I am not professional at writing nor am I taking any sort of writing class so constructive criticism is greatly appreciated.
> 
> Enjoy the reading.

The world was coming to an end. Shane was sure of it.

Maybe not the world as perceived in reality, but the known world, and every lie that Shane had crafted from day 0. Every relationship and achievement was sure to be taken away in a blink of an eye. How could it not? Shane always suspected that Ryan would be his downfall.

Once the smaller man asks to talk in private, Shane had to accept his imminent doom, and fast. The shared car ride to his apartment gave him plenty of time to do so. Plenty of awkward and tense silences, most of the outward expelling of said tension spilling from Ryan’s end, where Shane felt as though he had to match that same output but out of veiled paranoia. It all should’ve been enough time for the taller of the two to just turn and face the music. Even so, the blurred light from lamp posts and 24-hour storefronts overwhelmed his senses half the time Shane even attempted to make peace. The rest of the time, actually driving took precedence because of all the traffic lights and constant congestion. It took the usual sluggish time that it normally did for Shane to roll to his apartment complex at such an hour. By the time he pulled up to the parking garage, the stagnant void of the night had taken place, brightened and dulled by the incessant flare of humanity on the surface. Yet, no peace was reached.

The yellowed lights inside were irritating but oddly necessary. The partners clamored out of Shane’s car with a rigidness that could only be achieved in such situations. Ryan, whether intentionally or subconsciously, sent a pointed glare in Shane’s direction, urging him silently forward. The air around them was heavy and warm with the surrounding humidity, but the lanky man tried to shrug it off in favor of surging onward without looking back to see his friend practically stalking behind. 

Upon entering, Shane was resolute in the fact that he could never be content with the end of his world. Ryan turned on the lights, drenching the main living area in the quarters in a buzzing white light. Shane’s eyes squinted but adjusted eventually. The shorter man brushed coldly past his slouching friend before sinking into the scratchy fabric of the navy blue couch. Shane swung his arms in apprehension, choosing to prolong the inevitable. “Do you want anything to eat? Or drink?” He moved towards the kitchen, just in case.

“No, not right now.” Ryan’s brown gaze flicked over to where Shane stood, some of the icy sharpness to it wearing and melting to a blunt edge. “I really just want to talk to you.”

Seizing up was a reasonable and logical reaction, Shane supplied himself. Despite the easy scapegoat to just stand in the limbo between his kitchen and living room, he drifted gingerly over and sat on the absolute opposite end to Ryan. “Right. This is about the cameras… thing.” It was almost posited as a question, but halfway through, Shane concluded that it could be the only reason for their high-stress meeting in an area Shane should’ve felt safer.

Unfortunately, Ryan nodded in affirmation. “Yeah. Listen,” a sharp inhale broke the sentence apart. “I’m gonna get straight to the point, capiche?” A furrowed brow popped up questioningly, more like a challenge.

Shane quickly cleared his throat and leaned fully into his sofa, sinking in for either a long conversation or a frighteningly short one. “Roger that, major.” He did a sloppy salute while adorning a messy smile. The entire situation couldn’t be more terrifying.

Normally, the attempt at levity would be awarded with a smile, a fake laugh, or even a “har har,” but it was stone cold deadpanning, and Shane ditched humor in an instant. “I’ve known you for over 3 years. I’ve spent every day with you. I’d like to think that we can read each other like open books. I know when you’re lying. Today, you were lying about why you turned off your camera.” Ryan inhaled, eyebrows relaxing slightly as he tried to assuage his anger a bit. “So I want to know two things. One, why you lied to me, and two, what the real reason is.”

Shane was awestruck. Almost ecstatic. The world wasn’t on a precarious precipice of falling apart. The taller man couldn’t hold his long sigh of relief. “Oh thank god… I thought you were gonna kick me off Unsolved.” The statement was just below a whisper, said as more of a vocal afterthought to the hurricane of fear that had struck Shane mere moments before. 

Upon looking up to his cohost, Shane saw Ryan’s half-open mouth, face twisted in a display of offense and shock. “‘Kick you off?’ Low blow man! What gave you the idea that I would even try to kick you off Unsolved!? I’m hurt, yes, but we’re also best friends and best friends talk this shit out!”

Shane found himself able to chuckle, nerves still jittering. “Yeah, but I’ve never done anything like that before! Like, that’s top 10 anime betrayals list!”

It was reluctant, but Ryan couldn’t help his own soft snicker. It was enough to lift the mood a bit more. “While yes, what you did was terrible, I want to work past this, you know? I want to be your friend but I can’t ignore this. So… why you lied and what’s the truth. Go.”

A celebration may have been premature, Shane realized. “Uh… Well… By all technicalities, I didn’t lie.” The lanky man stood up from his couch, meandering over to a window to look outside. The lights of Los Angeles reached up to the sky, creating a dome of a dark haze rather than a blanket of pure black, studded with shuttering stars. “I did just miss the stars. Out here, if I’m lucky, I can see a few. Sirius maybe. Out there… I could see so many stars. It was breathtaking. Even the ones furthest away or the smallest ones were out.” Shane tore his gaze away from the lights and focused on Ryan again. “I didn’t lie.”

Ryan was looking at his friend quizzically. “Why though? Why did you turn off your cameras? What was so important for you to hide?! You’re leaving something out, I know it!” There was almost a need to his voice as Ryan pulled himself up to advance towards his coworker. 

As quickly as it had gone, Shane felt the anxiety flood back in. The whole day was one exhausting rollercoaster wit no breaks or gaps in the ride. “It’s personal, Ryan,” Shane swiftly argued.

“And we tell each other everything!” Ryan retorted as he took another step.

Shane held his ground by the glass, trying to stare down his friend with aid from his height. “I’m sorry but I can’t!”

“Can’t or won’t?” Ryan bravely challenged.

“I can’t!”

“You are physically unable to tell me?!”

“I can, physically, but not morally or mentally and I think those carry similar weight to physically!” At that point, Ryan was almost on top of him, head tilting up to meet Shane’s amber eyes.

“So you don’t trust me? Is that it!?”

“Yes!”

It was as if the simple word was thunder, rattling the bones of the pair. Ryan backed off, but Shane wouldn’t… couldn’t look his friend in the eyes, knowing fully well that he shattered something inside the other. Silence prevailed for a while as Shane strengthened his resolve and assurance that he, in fact, couldn’t tell Ryan. He couldn't tell anybody. 

Shane could hear Ryan as he stepped away, pivoting and heading towards the door without so much as a “fuck you” to at least tell Shane that their friendship together was officially broken off. The front door was opened but didn’t close right away. There was a brief moment of hesitation, but even then, Shane just looked up and out into the sea of blazing lights that burned at his eyes. Finally, the door closed with a delicate softness that was expected, albeit uncharacteristic.

With a hefty, burdened sigh, Shane straight up fell backwards. He let himself collapse into a flatly lain stretch of fake human on his rug, closing his eyes to stave off the light from peaking through. There still weren’t any stars. 

“Is this what you always do whenever I leave your house?”

The question cut through the heavy silence and struck Shane enough to get the man to snap his eyes open. Looking around from his vantage point, he couldn’t see Ryan, but the shorter man came into view soon, looking down at Shane. Hastily, Shane got a response out. “I’m sorry but what the fuck?”

“What?” Ryan looked about like he had no idea what Shane was talking about, brows furrowed slightly in confusion.

“Ry- I heard the door close! I thought you left!”

“You only wish.” Ryan forced a chuckle, but now Shane wasn’t having any of it, which brought Ryan to silence fairly quickly. “I was going to leave but that would make me a hypocrite. We can work through this… right?” He extended out a hand to his fellow investigator on the floor, giving off a small smile. 

Shane could only stare for a bit, processing all the possibilities in his head. It was a dangerous and slippery slope, and Ryan had every mind to throw more than his peaceful life out of shape. At an extreme, Ryan could kill him. Inadvertently, yes, but still, instincts had him biting back, gripping his chino pants, and second-guessing; however, the probability of Ryan respecting him if he gives in willing increases drastically. 

Deciding, Shane reached up and let his stronger friend to grip it in his own and tug him off the floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed! Sorry if it is obvious that I'm a bit out of practice. 
> 
> Have a wonderful day, and stay healthy


	4. Chapter 4: Countdown to Code Red

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shane puts his faith in Ryan, and Ryan just wants to understand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! It's been a while.
> 
> Thank you for coming in for a new chapter. I hope this will be worth the wait for those of you who are subscribed to this fic.
> 
> Obligatory, I don't write for a living nor do I have any formal education. Any critique would be immensely appreciated, along with general comments. They really keep me going!
> 
> Thank you, and enjoy.

Ryan was trying to understand. He really was. Nothing meant more in the moment to him than to just comprehend, so that he could possibly, by some small margin, help. But he knew that the only way he could understand is if Shane would just draw the curtains back. Even just a bit. Instead, the twiggish man was gently sipping a cup of tea he made for himself while staring at Ryan with unusually wide eyes. It was contemplative, and ever so slightly paranoid, a look that never suited Shane’s face well. The air hung heavily in Ryan’s lungs, drawing the vapor from his own cup of tea. The couch was itchy. Ryan always wondered why his friend wouldn’t ever buy a new one.

Shane took another long sip, and Ryan cleared his throat softly through the audible slurping. “Uh… so…” Ryan trailed off in his attempt to figure out the question to ask. “What are you willing to tell me?” It seemed safe enough.

With a steadying breath, Shane placed his mug delicately on the coffee table. His now free hand combed through his dark brown hair to push the few locks of disobedient strands off of his forehead. Annoyingly enough, more tumbled out of place. “I… really should tell you everything-”

“But you won't,” Ryan gently interjected, slightly dejected.

Shane didn’t make eye contact, brows furrowed pensively. “No…” He bit his lip with a steadying inhale. “I can’t expect you to get it without sounding crazy.” He collapsed back onto the couch, eyes unfocused.

Desperation clawed back up to the surface of Ryan’s sea of turbulent emotions. “I’m sure I can understand if you just explain.” 

The tired man on the other side of the couch chuckled dryly. “Telling you could get me killed, at best.” His smile was strained wider than where it usually sat. “Crazy enough?”

Thoughts flicked through the shorter man’s mind, trying its hardest to rationalize his friend’s grand accusation. “I-... Are you trying to say that I’ll kill you!?” His chest tried to implode. “Shane, you know that I’m always joking when I say I’ll murder you, right? I mean, I thought I conveyed that but-”

Promptly, Shane interjected, holding up his hand to stop Ryan from rambling on further. “I know. I wasn’t talking about that. It wouldn’t be like that. It’s more like…” he paused to formulate the perfect analogy. “...like your dreams. Those ones you have where I die of some supernatural thing or whatever. It wouldn’t be by your hands, but you’d still see it as your fault.”

Ryan sank back, curling in to put his feet on the old couch. “So death. At best. What’s worse than that?” Morbid curiosity was a cruel mistress.

Finally, Shane looked back to Ryan, a regretful smile etched in. “That’s a deep rabbit hole, Bergara.”

“I promise I won’t tell anyone.” Ryan feared that Shane would think it’s empty.

Shane blinked a few times as he leaned his chest forward. His voice came out strangled, but definite. “I can’t… Not here at least.” With that finalizing thought, the taller man stood and downed his tea in one hungry gulp. Something shifted in him that Ryan was grateful to see. It was a hardened dedication, however hesitant his friend was to deploy it. It suited his face much better than an unsettling paranoia. “I can tell you tonight if you don’t mind staying up a while longer.” This time, Shane extended his hand out to Ryan. A show of vulnerability that only occurred once in a blue moon for the spindly limbed man.

A rush of excitement crashed against Ryan, the thrill of a mystery burning higher now that he had a lead. He had to admit, after so long of only seeing unsolved cases that he couldn’t ever get the answers to, it was nice to know that something was going to be getting a satisfying conclusion. Hastily, Ryan took Shane’s hand. “I’ve had later nights.”

“Good. Back into the car!” Shane helped Ryan to his feet. He veered off to clean out his cup and grab his car keys while Ryan waited at the door. “We need to take a bit of a drive to an empty field or forest, but a field would be preferred.”

“I don’t know about fields, but I know we have deserts,” Ryan responded rather bluntly.

Shane sighed deeply, rubbing his temples. “I know… It would be nice though.” Still, Shane opened the door to let Ryan and himself out. “We’ll find somewhere that’s large and open and hopefully far away from people.”

Ryan could only nod and tail Shane on his way to the parking garage. “What am I going to end up seeing?” He couldn’t keep the question from breeching, curiosity buzzing about in his mind like a swarm of locusts, eating away at his resolve. 

Shane didn’t look back to make eye contact as he pressed the button to call the elevator. “I thought you knew the definition of patience?” The telltale sign of a smile rung in Shane’s softhearted jab. Merrily, a ding resounded as the dull light of the down elevator signal clicked on, and the metal doors slid open obediently. “If I give you any hints you’ll be more unbearable during the car ride.” Shane cast a knowing glance over his shoulder as he stepped into the large box. Admittedly, Shane got Ryan there. The shorter man knew enough about himself to know that when he got a little bit of information he craved even more. Still, he felt the need to refute it. 

"I promise I won’t say a word on the car ride!” Ryan chased Shane in and let the taller one man the controls. “Just… one thing!”

Shane sent a sidewards glance at his companion. “I don’t trust the validity of that statement." Ryan knit his eyebrows together and sent tiny daggers over to Shane with his eyes. With a trademark chortle on his end, the lanky man rolled his eyes. “Only one thing.” Ryan couldn’t keep back the slightest squeak of excitement as Shane prepared to concede the info. “I… am very tall.”

“... Huh?”

With a disruptive ding, the elevator released the two out into the garage again, and Shane hastily took his leave, his long limbs taking long strides. A few moments passed and Ryan had to dash between the closing metal doors in order to scramble after his friend.

“Hold on! That explains nothing! I know you’re tall! I’ve been friends with you for years! I look at you every day, not to mention that you constantly remind me and everyone else about that fact! Explain!” Ryan’s exclamations and demands came out in a rushed stream of accusatory thoughts and blurred confusion. 

Shane just gave his friend a nonchalant shrug, unlocking his car. “You said one thing, Bergara. You’re gonna see that I am really tall.” The smile that he flashed to Ryan was coy as he closed the driver’s side door with him inside.

Thoroughly peeved about the mirth that Shane was gleaning from the situation, Ryan plopped into the passenger side door. “Fine. Just drive, you cryptic bastard.”

“Righto,” was all that came back as the car pulled out of the space, and the radio clicked on to play some of the good old ABBA.

City lights blurred into incomprehensible yellowed streaks as Ryan stared at his hands in his lap. Super Trooper hummed in the space to fill the void of silence. Overbearing skyscrapers dissolved into streetlamps, hanging over the sparse scattering of vehicles on the mountain roads. Further still, and Los Angeles became a distant sight, a haze of lighter blues isolated the city from the wide blanket of desolate black dotted with glimmering waypoints. Ryan couldn’t help but look out his window and try to understand what Shane had said when he missed the stars. There was no denying that they were quite a sight when one pays attention. They all shuddered at the sudden attention. 

After about an hour, they emerged from the mountains and began to pull out into the desert cities and towns. LA became invisible to the two, long since obscured by towering peaks. Ryan couldn’t hold back a yawn as his late-night got even later. Determination was the only one keeping his lids from sealing up for the night, with the minimal help of the ever-present lights from 24-hour stores and streetlamps. Looking over to check up on Shane, Ryan silently noted how his knuckles were shades whiter than his already pale skin.

Even longer, and the duo abandoned the last town in favor of the sandy landscapes that stretched on for seemingly forever, mountain ranges on the horizon melting into the sky. Small shrubs dotted the ground, standing separate from their brothers. Mounting dread seemed to pour out of Shane, quickly filling up the car. Ryan shifted, occupying himself with more questions that he kept dredging up.

The ride started to take a rough turn as Shane pulled the car over onto the rocky expanse. Slowing to a stop, Shane turned the vehicle off with as steadying breath. “Ok. Now, we walk.” Without another word, the man was out of the car and walking out into the desert.

Opening his mouth to protest, Ryan climbed out to follow. “Wait! We drove for almost 2 hours! Isn’t that far enough?”

Shane just stopped, looking around at his surroundings. Ryan did the same, looking down both ends of the road. No cars. Up at the sky. No planes. A heavy sigh called Ryan to look back at his friend. He had turned slightly to face Ryan, clear unease reflecting in his amber eyes. “I… I guess this is enough. Just… give me a second to prepare.”

Ryan nodded, wandering out to where Shane was, looking up at the pitch-black. He looked down just in time to see Shane halfway out of his pants, sending blood straight to the shorter man’s face, along with his hands. “DUDE! WHAT THE FUCK!?” Ryan screeched at Shane, clawing at his face in a futile attempt to pull whatever he saw out of his head.

Shane seemed to be equally flustered, shouting back, “I TOLD YOU I HAD TO GET READY!”

“BY GETTING NAKED!?”

“IT’LL MAKE SENSE! JUST- ONLY LOOK OVER WHEN I TELL YOU TO!”

“FINE!” Ryan’s face was burning with the force of a thousand suns, reflecting the likeness of a tomato. Shane could be heard grumbling in the background, but Ryan paid him no heed.

“Ok. You can look,” Shane announced, sounding a bit strangled over the whole situation.

Breathing slow, Ryan uncovered his eyes, only to slap them right back on. “SHANE, I DON’T WANT TO SEE YOUR ASS!” The lanky man was lying on the ground, stark naked. While a bare back and butt were preferred to the alternative, it was uncalled for. “Put your fucking clothes on, you lunatic!”

Shane just sighed, and the sharp sound of static cut through the night air. The surrounding bushes rustled and broke under a new weight pushing them aside. Curiosity mixed with fear, sending shivers into Ryan’s knees. He could tell something blotted the moon’s minimum glow, casting a shadow over him. After a minute, a warm rush of air expelled around his chest, causing his shirt to flutter with the force of it. A mere second and it all came rushing back. In and out, it mimicked regular breath. With a shuddering inhale, Ryan uncovered his eyes.

Staring at him was a large, pale blue, furred face, with greyed markings adorning its chin. The face was at ground level, yet was a good foot taller than Ryan. A slit right above what was to be presumed to be the mouth was the cause of constant airflow around Ryan. Above all else, Ryan made eye contact with large, violet eyes, one large one in the center of the towering face, and two sets above it. Pale looking pupils gazed back, almost inquisitive. Then, it spoke.

“Hi…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading all the way through! I hope to get the next chapter out sooner than I did this one. So sorry.
> 
> Anyway, thank you again, and stay healthy.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for finishing the fic! It means a lot that you read this. Any critique and comments are greatly appreciated. Also, if you do want more of this, feel free to let me know. 
> 
> Thank you for reading, and stay healthy


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